strait-lace

American

[streyt-leys] / ˈstreɪtˌleɪs /

verb (used with object)

strait-laced, strait-lacing

to bind, confine, or restrain with or as if with laces.

Etymology

Origin of strait-lace

First recorded in 1630–40; back formation from strait-laced

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Even in his gladness the good minister, Thomas Baldwin, of the Second Baptist Church, 309 / 263 at Boston, North End, returning from Newport, N.H., where he had happily harmonized a discordant church, could not escape the strait-lace of a C minor for his thankful hymn— From whence doth this union arise, That hatred is conquered by love.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023